I tried to say that he had to know or more probably helped her or it was a sin that they had to commit together. After the “what do you mean they had to commit it together?”Then the “well, what if”s started to roll.

The original questioned was posed by my twelve year old son.
Note to anyone that cares. Sixteen year old boys are rarely helpful in these kind of things.

I can’t imagine Eve NOT sharing it with Adam.
Given that:
-Eve thought the knowledge from the forbidden tree was a good thing (not Good but “good”)
-Good things should be shared, especially with one’s spouse
-Eve and Adam acted as a married couple in all ways, including this one

Therefore:
It makes complete sense that Eve shared with Adam, and he went along with it, trusting her judgment.

The first eleven books of Genesis are considered mythological. The stories are told in such a way as to bring out a theological point (e.g.–God’s power and love, Original Sin and its effects and consequences, the true nature of marriage).

God was moved by His Goodness to create the world. (De Fide)
The world was created for the Glorification of God. (De Fide)
The Three Divine Persons are one single, common Principle of the Creation. (De Fide)
God created the world free from exterior compulsion and inner necessity. (De Fide)
God has created a good world. (De Fide)
The world had a beginning in time. (De Fide)
God alone created the world. (De Fide)
God keeps all created things in existence. (De Fide)
God, through His Providence, protects and guides all that He has created. (De Fide)
The first man was created by God. (De Fide)
Man consists of two essential parts — a material body and a spiritual soul. (De Fide)
Every human being possesses an individual soul. (De Fide)
Our first parents, before the Fall, were endowed with sanctifying grace. (De Fide)
The donum immortalitatis, i.e. the divine gift of bodily immortality of our first parents. (De Fide)
Our first parents in paradise sinned grievously through transgression of the Divine probationary commandment. (De Fide)
Through the original sin our first parents lost sanctifying grace and provoked the anger and the indignation of God. (De Fide)
Our first parents became subject to death and to the dominion of the Devil. (De Fide)

These are infallible teaching which we are certainly supposed to accept as part of our faith. I think referring to things as stories or mythological does not seem to tie into that De Fide teaching. However, I am no Theologian by any stretch.

The way this is posed cannot be answered for we need more information on what Adam role was in the event as others have mentioned. I think it was a great teaching opportunity on what role we play with evil. An example is the discussion in the church on voting for a pro abortion candidate and the issue of proportionate reasons. We also have material or remote cooperation. I think our kids need to be taught this solidly or they will learn distortion in the world and even in our Catholic schools/Universities. We need to have their faith built on rock and not sand.

But what if Eve knowing Adam would not eat the apple and quietly made apple juice and Adam drank it. After all, God did not say anything about drinking apple juice. thus we have Catholic teaching in our Universities seeking escape trapes to support grave evil.

Mark said it more expansively, but as to the Church’s “official” position on Adam and Eve, and the account in Genesis: the Church “officially” asserts relatively little about Scriptural interpretation, preferring to set the boundaries of orthodoxy, within which one is free to seek various interpretations.

It’s a minor point, but everyone does know that there is no apple in Genesis? What I find interesting is how we came to associate the apple with Genesis. I can offer these data:

> In the Age of Faith, in Germany, it was customary to have plays on feast days, and this included the feast day of Adam and Eve: Dec. 24. The plays featured a tree decorated with apples and disks of bread. Clearly they were conflating the two trees: the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life. This, by the way, is the best-attested origin of the Christmas Tree.

> Why apples? What follows is surmise. If you are in Germany, in AD 1200, in late December, what fruit are you likely to have around? Apples are pretty common and they keep fairly well when kept cool.

> Also, remember that the Bible was in Latin at this time. In Latin, the tree of “good and bad” would be the tree of “bonum et malum.” Curiously, the Latin word for apple–in the nominative form–is likewise malum.

There may be more to the association of the apple with the tree of knowledge, but these seem noteworthy to me.

From Scriptural evidence alone, the fruit might well have been figs–after all, they wore fig leaves right after.

But in truth, the actual fruit is not important; it would not be sound exegesis to try to tie the trees of paradise to any tree we now have. Paradise was and is a fundamentally different reality to what we experience–that’s part of the point of the story.

This is a wonderful question and the boy who asked it should definitely be givwn an award or prize or something!

If Adam hadn’t eaten the apple, it would sure have messed up theology for one thing.
If Adam hadn’t eaten the apple, a more explicit intetn of God would have been revealed.
If Adam hadn’t eaten of the apple, no children (including us) would have been born.
If Adam hadn’t eaten the apple, he and Eve would have had a conflict to reolve.
I do not know what would have happened but am grateful for the question.